Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/200379 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
ISER Working Paper Series No. 2018-15
Publisher: 
University of Essex, Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), Colchester
Abstract: 
We investigate women's fertility, labor, and marriage market responses to large declines in child mortality in the U.S. Fertility declined on the intensive margin as expected. However, despite the increasing value of having at least one child, a larger share of women remained childless. We explain these findings with a new theory of fertility that includes fertility timing and labor force participation as choices. Consistent with the model's predictions, we find that reductions in child mortality led women to delay childbearing, increase their labor force participation, improve their occupational status, and to be less likely to have ever married.
Subjects: 
women's labor force participation
fertility timing
childlessness
child mortality
maternal mortality
medical innovation
JEL: 
J13
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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